Ace looked
over the line of welders with heads down and elbow up and commented, "As
long as we pay them by the hour what difference does it make what they do,
don't kid yourself they are all here just for the money." For decades this has been the dominate view
of fabrication and construction employees.
But is it the best view? When our
projects are becoming more and more complex, and the need to creatively engaged
people is greater than ever?
What we end
up with is a self reinforcing cycle where this attitude breeds a similar
reflection in each employee that goes something like this: "Hey, I don't
want to think, I don't get paid to think, just let me weld. If the drawing is wrong that's not my job to
fix it, screw the PMs anyway, they think we're all idiots anyway, and on and on
. . . "
With this
symbiotic attitude going on, let me ask some questions. Would we want this attitude on our team to
climb Mt. Everest? Is this a sufficient
attitude for our team that's scuba diving for sunken treasure in the Gulf of
Mexico? Would we want this kind of sailor on our Americas Cup team? Is the vitality of our fabrication facilities or construction projects any less
important? Consider
all the lifelines connected to our work, families, communities, businesses that
depend on us just like our fellow climbers challenging the summit of
Everest.
So maybe we
can take a look at something better than Ace's industry wide perspective. Professor Dan Ariely, Duke University, has
produced a wealth of ground breaking work on workplace attitudes, with
surprising and hopeful results.
Remember, your Everest summit team will work in the worst possible
conditions, under incredible stress, both physical and mental. And yet, as my friend Mike who has viewed the
world from the top of Everest, will tell you, as soon as he had recovered . . .
. he wanted to go back!
OK, this was
the set up, next time let's explore some things we can do to feed the desire
within all of us to do great things.
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